While some of those changes are due to advancements of the actual computer, a lot of it is the technology that has advanced in manufacturing and being able to mass produce some of these parts at a lower expense. Now, an average $1,500-$2,000 ECU has capabilities that would completely overwhelm a 10-year-old ‘high-end’ ECU that might’ve cost $6,000-$8,000.” “It used to be that you’d have to spend $10,000, $15,000 or even $20,000 to get into systems that could do multi-cylinder injectors, multi-injectors per cylinder, individual coils, drive-by-wire throttle bodies, variable camshaft control, dual lambda control built into the ECU, integrated boost and nitrous, and traction control all in one box rather than having to have separate boxes. The problems, however, start when you want to change something with the engine. The information that’s stored in the memory contains all the variables and the data required to run the engine as it was in stock form. Tuning with a factory ECU typically involves what’s called re-flashing.
![self tuning ecu ls self tuning ecu ls](https://www.ecctuned.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ecu-tune-web.jpg)
“There are some available products in the marketplace that allow people to go in and make some changes, but they tend to be very limited in scope – both in what makes and models of vehicles are covered, as well as what things you can actually change because of the limitations of a factory ECU.” “I think the biggest struggle that happens is when people want to make engine modifications, but they want to keep the original factory ECU,” says Ben Strader of EFI University.
![self tuning ecu ls self tuning ecu ls](https://www.quantumdealer.co.uk/images/obd-remap.jpg)
In many performance applications, the stock ECU just isn’t going to cut it, and unfortunately, many people don’t know they are limiting themselves in terms of tuning capability or maxing out what the stock ECU can realistically accomplish. Not only do you need to understand what it’s controlling and able to control and how to tune everything to work for your needs, but you have to also ensure the ECU you’re using with your specific engine makes sense for the application.